[ad_1]
It is mainly two people who have turned the once careless genius Beat Feuz into a great professional. We’re talking about teammate Katrin Triendl and her longtime coach Sepp Brunner.
It is in January 2010 when the Styrian native severely compresses the Emmentaler. Reason: Feuz finished sixth from last in Lauberhorn’s downhill race, 5.96 seconds behind winner Carlo Janka! “Beat, you are wasting your enormous talent with your unprofessional lifestyle. Either you suddenly improve your fitness or I’ll kick you off the team! “
Brunner pulled Feuz out of the hole
After this latest reminder, Feuz improved so much that he achieved his first Lauberhorn win in 2012. When Beat nearly lost his left knee ten months later due to a serious infection, Brunner was removed from the association as group coach so that he could become charge of the reconstruction of Feuz.
And indeed: Brunner leads the ball like lightning with great feeling for the injured knee back to the top of the world. However, a few weeks after Beat’s downhill World Cup win at home in St. Moritz, the Austrian is fired because he has spoken out critically in public about certain decisions made by the association’s management.
Now train Mayer and Kriechmayr
Later, Brunner becomes the ÖSV’s head of departure. Since returning home, the 62-year-old has won three Olympic and World Cup gold medals, as well as Lauberhorn and Hahnenkamm’s downhill races with Matthias Mayer and Vincent Kriechmayr. And now Brunner and Mayer want to snatch the ball downhill from their former favorite student, Feuz.
The Swiss is currently 48 points ahead of the Austrian in the overall relegation ranking. There are still three outstanding races remaining in the supreme discipline, two of which will take place on Friday and Saturday at “Mayers Revier” in Saalbach. “It will be very difficult to get the rhythm of the ball because his consistency in this discipline has been absolutely outstanding for years,” says Brunner.
Are Mayer’s remaining sections better?
However, Ösi recognizes the possibilities of a happy ending for Mayer in this thriller: “As hosts, unlike the Swiss, we had the opportunity to train in Saalbach last week. But I also think the final track in Lenzerheide will suit Matthias more than a beat due to some Super-G type passages. “
At the same time, Brunner admits that Mayer is more sensitive than Feuz: “If something goes wrong around Matthias, it often affects his performance. Beat, on the other hand, cannot be influenced at all by side scenes on the tracks. ”And it is precisely this coldness that could be the main reason why Beat Feuz wins the small relegation ball for the fourth time in a row.
